We are really starting to get into the swing of the Farmers’ Market season. Eric is now up before 5 am every day, and often isn’t in the house until 9:30 or 10. After the stress of the last few weeks, Eric has spent this week recovering from laryngitis. Although the last few weeks have been rough, this week has been a week of renewed spirit.  One of the farm improvements this year was to put in irrigation lines. Even with the lack of rain this week, we are able to see the gardens come to life. We were able to pick our first strawberries. The most exciting news, our bull calf, Walter, will be moving back to Jeanne’s. We will welcome a mama cow named Daisy and a new heifer, named Gretchen, with him. Eric will start milking again in the next week.

For those of you wondering about the cupcakes, baking with love works. Yellow cupcakes with strawberry frosting.  Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

~eve

It’s a big week around here as Milo turns 2 this week! It’s amazing how quickly that happened. It seems like he was just born, and as I reflect on the last two years it’s also amazing how I have blocked out the first 12 weeks of his life. Our good friend Lori had an adorable boy 6 weeks ago. I’ve really enjoyed talking with her the last few weeks. As we talk I try to remember what I was doing at the same time frame. All I can remember is thinking, “What have I done?? I had such a nice self centered life!”

Alright, back on topic. Milo turns 2. Due to this, I have been getting ready to host our families on Saturday afternoon. Eric and I are both the youngest of 5, so when we say, “let’s have a few family members over,” it turns into 30-40 people. I have been looking at cake and cupcake recipies. I busted out 36 chocolate cupcakes last night. As I baked I was in a horrible mood. The stress of the last week was weighing on me. I was mad at Eric for being a farmer. I was mad at myself for being so selfish. You name it, I was finding a reason to be mad. As I finished the batter, I realized it wasn’t right. But that didn’t stop me, I baked them. They smelled good. As they finished they looked wonky. I pulled them out and let them cool. Some how baking with anger created a cupcake that resembled part cake, part brownie-and not in a good way. As I sat down in defeat, I took a deep breath. And I stewed some more. Eric came in and tried a cupcake.

“Huh, are they supposed to be like this?”

I was hoping he could actually feel the death glare I was projecting his way.

This morning I woke up in a much better mood. I decided to shake off the defeat of the last week and move on. I remember hearing a conversation between a baker and customer once. The customer asked why the bakers’ items were so good. They didn’t seem like anything extraordinary, but they tasted amazing. The baker replied in all honesty, “I bake with love.”

I’m not sure why that has stuck in my head all these years, but it has. So tonight, I am going to bake with love.

Stop back on Thursday. I’ll give an update on available produce at the Saturday market. I’ll also let you know how the baking turned out.

~eve

Thank you all for your kind words about Maple. She really was a great cow and we miss her terribly. After Maple died, Milo and I hurried over to Jeanne’s. As we arrived Jeanne and Eric were standing in the drive. As we approached them Eric asked what we should tell Milo. We ultimately decided we should let Milo see Maple. It was a tough decision, as even I really didn’t want to go see her. Eric told Milo that Maple had died. Of course Milo had no idea what this meant. As we went into the barn Milo saw Maple and the calf. He greeted the calf with, “Good morning, bull calf!” Which was followed by a, “Get up Maple.”

We have had numerous discussions with Milo about being cautious around Maple. We have allowed him to be in the barn with her when she was in the stanchion, but have told him he had to go to the other side of the barn door when she was going in and out.

Milo continued, “Get up, Maple, get up.” As I started to sob, Eric told Milo, “Maple will never get up Milo. She’s not able to get up ever again.” We sat and watched Maple for a minute. Milo finished with, “Maple not getting up, ever.”

Milo and I got in the car and went to school. I sobbed the whole way. By the time we got to school I looked like a puffy, wet mess. As I dropped Milo off I explained to the teachers that our cow had died. Milo assured the obvious, “Mama’s crying. She’s sad.” But no mention of Maple.

Over the last two days we can hear a cow mooing, or pass a herd on the way home. Milo has asked about going to see Maple a few times, I have reminded him, “Milo, Maple died. We won’t get to see her in person ever again. We can look at pictures, and we may see her in our sleep, but we won’t ever get to pet her again.”

I’m sure if a child psych professor at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics were to read this, we would quickly be told how we screwed this up. I’m sure some of your are judging our decision to share this with Milo. We figure that life and death is such a part of farm life, we had to introduce the topic at some point.

Have you had to explain death to a little one in your life? What did you tell them? How did they respond?

UPDATE: W.G. the bull calf, has gone to live at Farmer Bill’s. He will be surrounded by another calf who lost his mama, and numerous other mama cows. He will be loved and cared for, fortunately we can visit him anytime we want.

Sunday morning, as I had hoped to sleep in as a Mother’s Day present to myself, Eric shook me awake whispering, “Maple had her calf.”

“Really?? Let’s get Milo up and go see the calf!” I replied. We headed up the road to Jeanne’s and found Maple standing off in the field nursing her new babe. Eric worked on leading Maple up to the barn, and snapped this great photo in the process.

For those of you who don’t know about Maple, she came to live with us in October of last year. When we brought her to Jeanne’s we thought she was somewhere between 5-7 years old. We also knew she was bred and should be having a baby in May. She spent her time in the west field. Often mooing at bikers as they climbed the hill on Sutliff Road. Sometimes she could stand still enough and time it so it would scare bikers. It wasn’t uncommon to hear, “oh my goodness, there’s a cow there!”

Eric has been fortunate enough to have a mentor right up the road, Bill Ellison. Bill has farmed since he was born. He has had a Grade A Dairy, he had raised cattle, sheep, pigs, chicken, and grown his own grain to feed these animals. Bill and Eric worked together on Bill’s farm for over 3 years. Bill is a treasured resource for us. Eric immediately called Bill to tell him about the new calf. We all spent Sunday marveling over the calf. Eric and Bill were careful to watch Maple for signs of hypocalcemia over the first 24 hours.

Hypocalcemia, or Milk Fever, is caused by a massive release of calcium due to milk and colostrum production, usually occuring within 24 hours of birthing. Bill and Eric have seen Milk Fever 2 or 3 times in the last 4 years. Unfortunately, Bill lost a cow to Milk Fever 2 weeks ago. Bill and Eric were devistated.  Milk Fever is more likely to happen in Jersey cows after their fifth or sixth calving. Milk production increases with each birth, making it harder for the cow to replace calcium as quickly as needed. Also, if a cow experiences an episode of Milk Fever, subsequent episodes can be worse than previous episodes.

On Sunday night Eric called saying, “I called Bill and the Vet. Maple is showing signs of Milk Fever.” I waited anxiously to hear from Eric again. An hour later he called telling me,”Maple’s okay. The Vet came and put in an IV and gave her some Calcium Gluconate. She’s doing okay. I’m going to stay here and watch her for a while.” Around 11pm Eric made it home, exhausted.

Monday was farm life as normal. Eric continually checked on Maple and the calf. Some friends came out to see the new calf. It was a beautiful day.

This morning, as Milo and I snuggled in our chair reading books, Eric called. There was panic in his voice. “She’s down again. I called the Vet. I just wanted you to know.” I choked back the tears as Milo and I finished reading. 90 minutes later Eric called again. He didn’t say a word. I only heard sniffling. “She died?” I asked.

“Yes.” he said.

“I’m so sorry, Eric. Is Jeanne there?”

He said yes, then we sat in silence for 3 or so minutes.  He continued, “The Vet came and gave the treatment like last time, as well as some dextrose for possible ketosis due to the fact she’d been down so long.  She also worried that Maple would not be able to properly ruminate in the position she was in.  Jeanne and I helped administer the calcium and the dextrose and the Vet left, saying only that we should call back if she did not get up in the next few hours.  Jeanne and I just watched her die.”

“I have to find the calf a new mother.” Eric said. Bill and Eric talked for a good while. Thankfully, Bill will help Eric with Maple and the calf today.

We will miss you Maple. Thank you for bringing so much joy to our lives. We hope you enjoyed your time at Salt Fork Farms.

What a crazy week! As I was writing you last week, I was waiting for Eric to get back in the house as the lightening picked up. Due to the incoming weather, Eric did not move the broilers to the field. He quickly made it back to the house. It was one of those nights that we sat with all the lights off, watching the weather. For those of you who have not visited Salt Fork Farms, we live on Sutliff Rd. Our acreage is on top of a slight ridge. It’s not noticeable, until the wind picks up. Many nights, Eric and I have sat quietly waiting until the storm has passed, only to say, “let’s go check to make sure the greenhouse is still there.” Last year, on the day of Milo’s first birthday party, we had a storm roll in about two hours before everyone was to be at our house. We spent the morning in the basement, trying to call family members to tell them not to come, unable to reach them as our trusty phone service was failing. After the storm, we went outside, finding our full size flag pole in the neighbors yard. We keep the remainder of that flag pole-with the flag still on it- in our barn. Always the reminder of the crazy Iowa weather. Oh, and Milo’s party? Everyone made it. Everyone was sweet and kind as we sang Happy Birthday, waiting for the power to come back on.

So, back to last Thursday. Eric and I sat in the dark. Watching the wind blow everything around, listening to the greenhouse give and take in the downpour. Suddenly Eric turned and said, “get Milo up and go downstairs.” In a panic I just looked at him. The wind really picked up as Eric ran into Milo’s room, got him up and headed to the basement. After 30 minutes of Milo saying, “it’s the 5 o’clock whistle, Mama,” we were able to head back upstairs. Eric quickly went outside to check on the greenhouse.  The greenhouse sustained no damage. Unfortunately, a good portion of the greens and transplants that were in the field took a big hit. And so did our roof. Thankfully, the roofer will be out on Saturday.

Saturday was the first Iowa City Farmers’ Market. Tuesday, Eric had irrigation lines run from the house to the back field.  Wednesday, our fruit order of 50 blueberry bushes, 25 raspberry bushes, 1000 strawberry crowns, rhubard, horseradish and asparagus arrived, earlier than we planned. We also moved the broilers out to the field on Thursday night. Today we got a surprise call that 80 turkeys were at the Cedar Rapids Post Office. We were expecting them on Friday. Eric quickly went and turned on the brooder and headed to the feed mill to get the turkey feed he had ordered. We packed Milo up and headed into the post office  to pick up our new baby turkeys. I ended up taking the day off to help Eric settle the birds and plant all the fruit that had arrived. As we drove back from the post office, Eric got a call from our friend J. He was calling to tell us he wanted to come out and volunteer today. Eric then got a text from our friend Katie. She too would be out to volunteer today. We pulled into the drive, turkeys chirping away, to find Annie, one of our two employees working away. We also were surprised to see our friend Kristen. She had made the trip out to spend some of her free time working with us.

Through out the day, J. and Eric put together the rest of the irrigation. Kristen, Annie, Katie and I worked on getting all the new fruit in the ground. Early in the afternoon, our other employee, Justin, arrived. I found myself a bit choked up at the kindness of so many we know in the Iowa City community. While it might not be unusual to find one volunteer out at Salt Fork Farms, it was great to have so many people helping us today. We could not have planted as much as we did today without the generosity of these folks.

Enjoy your weekend!

~Eve

Hi all! It’s good to talk to you again. Spring is here! Well, it has been for a while now, but the summer like weather was crazy and confusing. It’s nice to have a bit of spring before summer really gets here. So, with spring in full force, and Eric busier than ever, I’m on blog duty.

As Eric posted last week, things are really taking off. The green house is blooming, the gardens are starting to show signs of germination, and birds are starting to move out to the fields. As I type this, at 8:30 on Thursday night, Eric is finishing washing today’s eggs and getting ready to move the broilers (meat chickens) to the field. They have spent the first few weeks of their lives staying warm and growing in the brooder room. Tonight, Eric will crate up all 300 of them and put them in the chicken tractors out in the back pasture. I’m watching the lightening pick up and hope he gets done before any severe weather sets in.

With spring here, Milo is also getting out and experiencing new things. Today he walked, barefoot, over to the neighbors house. He told me all about how the grass, then the dirt and then the gravel felt. After we got home, I started a few chores near the barn. About 45 seconds later I hear, “Mama, I’m muddy,” said with glee. My only reply, “Yes, Milo, you are very muddy.”

After this, Milo experienced what a cold garden hose feels like.

See you all soon!

~Eve

On the topic of the two market stands, I thought I would generate a little poll to get feedback on where our customers would like to shop:

Hope to see you tomorrow!  Here are some pictures to tide you over until then:

Also, we have gotten the Square credit card reader and will now be able to take credit and debit cards at our point of sale at Deluxe and in the future at the Farmers’ Market. Crazy modernity!

Strange and wonderful green food at the end of winter.

We will have CSA forms available at the bakery for those interested.

Also, the Iowa City CSA Fair is happening on Sunday from 1-5.  We will be there.  Tell your friends!

See you soon,

Eric

P.S.  Planted 4,000 onion seeds last week.  It’s time!

2011 onion flats